


You Didn't Hang the Moon

by perniciousLizard



Series: Goat to be Kidding [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 08:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7259794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a long drive out away from the city lights, where they can finally clearly see the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Didn't Hang the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Sans/Toriel Stargazing or Metoer Shower as the theme.
> 
> Thank you, [beth-barton](http://beth-barton.tumblr.com/)!

Toriel eyed the pie on the kitchen counter with some suspicion.  She had not made it, and the kitchen was not messy enough for her child to have made it, which left either Sans or Papyrus as the possible baking culprits.  

She did not think Papyrus baked anything other than lasagna, which meant if it was his, there was no telling what she would taste if she took a piece.  His cooking had improved but new recipes were always a risk.  Risk was there if it had been made by Sans, as well, but for different reasons.  Perhaps it would be butterscotch and cinnamon inside, or perhaps she would cut into the crust and the pie would deflate with a loud farting noise.  

Well, she should not be cutting pieces out of mysterious pies that did not belong to her, anyway.  No matter how curious she was.  

She heard a key in the lock and Sans strolled in.  He was most likely back from Grillby’s.  She thought he had the look of a skeleton who had just eaten enormous amounts of greasy food.

“hey, tori,” he said, knocking the door closed behind him.

“Hello. Was this your doing?” she asked, gesturing at the pie.

“oh. yeah.  had some time on my hands.  i think i’ve got the hang of it, now.”

“May I try it?”

“sure.  kinda curious how it turned out, actually.”  

She cut herself a piece.  It was her butterscotch-cinnamon recipe.  It did not taste exactly like hers, but it was delicious.  He really had gotten the hang of it. 

It made her think about how he had gone out of his way to try to learn about something she cared about.  He was not a very energetic monster, but he tried.  

Perhaps she could do something similar?  What did Sans like?  Socks?  They both were already a fan of jokes, and she had no particular interest in learning the trombone.  If she could think of an instrument that was a pun on goat, perhaps she could learn that?

There was an old telescope in the garage, and sometimes when Sans was not around, it would also be gone.  He took Frisk out to look at the stars, sometimes.  He had asked her, once, but she had not been too fond of the thought of being outside in the middle of the night when she could be sitting by her fire, reading.

Toriel took out a few books from the library and read about space and constellations and comets.  She knew what stars were, but she started to understand, in a deeper way, that everything she saw around her was a product of them.

When she went outside at night, she started to look up, curious, to see if she could pick out any constellations. 

–

“Oh, goodness, Sans, did you realize that the Perseids are peaking tonight?” Toriel asked.

“yeah.”

“We should take Frisk out and watch them!  It will be very educational.”

“you want to?  we’d have to go out pretty far to get away from the light pollution, and the kiddo’d be up all night.”

“We could not see them from the backyard?”

“only if we got lucky.”

“Sans, I _would_ like to see them,” she said.  "I have missed all the other showers since we came to the surface.  Now, what should we bring?"

The gathered up blankets and struggled to fit lawn chairs in the trunk of her car.  Sans was surprised and pleased when Papyrus wanted to come along, too, but that gave them a lot less space to fit everything.  Toriel made sure to bring bug spray for herself and her child.  Sans brought along a little flashlight that gave off red light, so they would not ruin their night vision when they wanted to look at anything.  

It was rare to see Sans so excited about something.  He tried to keep it to himself, but Toriel learned very quickly that just one little space joke could break that self control and he would either tell her twenty space jokes for her one, or he would go off on a tangent explaining something to her until he got embarrassed and stopped himself.  

Toriel told him he was adorable, which did not lessen his embarrassment.  

Papyrus drove.  Toriel sat in the front, for the extra leg room, and Frisk slept in the back drooling on Sans’ shoulder until the houses started to thin out and Sans nudged them awake.  Frisk opened the window and let in the warm summer air.  

They were lucky, and the few clouds they had seen earlier in the evening thinned and disappeared.  The whole sky was open in front of them.

Papyrus pulled over to the side of the road.  He must have come out to look at the sky with Sans before, because they never talked about where they were going.  He carried the lawn chairs, Toriel carried the blankets and the food, and Frisk carried the little bag with the miscellaneous things they would need.  Sans kept his hands shoved in his pockets and led the way up a hill a good distance away from the road.  They wouldn’t have to worry about the lights from passing cars ruining their night vision.  

Toriel found the lawn chair uncomfortably small, so she set down a blanket and lay on it.  Frisk joined her, for a while, but moved to a chair when Papyrus yelled that he had seen the first shooting star of the night.  

Sans sat down next to her, looking up.  

"It is amazing how many stars you can see out here,” she said.  "I had no idea how bright the sky was where we live."

"yeah.  hey, you see the little dipper?”  He pointed.

“I do know that one, at least, Sans,” she said, laughing.  

“if you can see all the stars in it, that means it’s dark enough to watch the shower and we’ll probably see a bunch of ‘em,” Sans said.  

“Oh!  I do see more stars in it than usual,” she said.  

“this is a pretty good spot.”  

They were quiet for a little while.  Sans rested his skull on her stomach, using her as a pillow.  The first one he spotted, he just said, “oh. there it goes.”

“I believe I missed it,” she said.

“look that way,” he said.  The white bones of his hand were bright and clear, now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark.  "they’ll look like they’re coming out of perseus."

It was a few minutes before she saw her first one.  A bright line stretched across the sky, and was gone.  "Oh!” she gasped, quiet.  "Oh, I saw it!"

"yeah?”

“How exciting!”  

“heh.”

He did not have a lot to say.  She told him a few jokes, and he chuckled at each of them, but he did not have any to share in return.  He looked at her, once, his eyes their own bright stars in the black space of his sockets.  She had never seen them brighter.  

Frisk fell asleep on their lawn chair.  Papyrus watched, for a while, but kept getting up to stretch or check out something he had seen moving in the darkness.  

After a while, Sans sighed.  "probably about it," he said.  

"I am not quite ready to move,” Toriel said.  "Anyway, someone else will have to move first."  So they stayed where they were for another half an hour.

They were both looking the same direction when the sky lit up for a few seconds, as the biggest meteor of the night passed over them.  Toriel gasped.  Sans was very still.

"Did you see that?” she asked.

“yeah,” he said.  

“That was huge!  My goodness!”  

“…that was… _something_ ,” Sans said.  

After a minute, his weight left her stomach and he was looking down at her.  She smiled, glad she had decided to leave the air conditioning behind for one night.  He leaned in and she kissed him.  

They had to wake Papyrus before they could leave.  He gently lifted Frisk onto his shoulder, careful not to wake them.  Toriel took the chairs and Sans managed the empty food container and the bag Frisk had carried.  

Toriel decided to drive back, since she found herself full of energy and Papyrus looked too tired to be safe.  Sans spoke to her, a few times, but they stayed quiet to let the other passengers sleep.  He stared out the window, perhaps trying to catch one last glimpse of the stars before the horizon turned gray and blanked them out.  


End file.
